Various types of computers use touch screens to receive input from end-users. Generally, an end-user uses a finger or other instrument to make physical contact with the touch screen. The computer coupled to the touch screen detects the physical contact and reacts accordingly.
Popular computer operating systems, such as the Windows® series of operating systems, lack the ability to properly receive and process multiple touches on the touch screen. To compensate for this deficiency, applications may be written for various operating systems so that multiple touch data may be properly received and processed. However, these applications are deficient in that they merely interact with touch screens using touch screen driver software. The applications are “unaware” of the context in which the touch screen is being used (e.g., whether multiple users are logged in, which user is logged in and currently active, whether any users are logged in at all, whether a screen saver is being displayed, etc.), because touch screen drivers are unable to provide this context information to the applications.
Without such context information, these applications cannot customize the touch screen for different users. For example, if user “A” prefers to hear a “beep” each time she touches the screen, while user “B” prefers not to hear a beep, these applications will be unable to accommodate the users' differing preferences. Furthermore, without this context information, multiple touch data may not be properly routed to the applications that need to use the touch data.